earnestly, and in a better spirit; to think that there is something in life, higher and better than the enjoyments of a beast. Unless they get so far as this, there is no danger, indeed, of the seed being parched up for want of root, and much less of its being choked by over-luxuriant weeds; their hearts are but the hard wayside, too dull and too degraded for the seed ever to live in them at all. No one, in short, can ever be a Christian, if he is not fit to be a man. It will be time enough hereafter to tell them of the wisdom of religious rest, even from Christian duties, when they have some notion of what Christian duty is. It will be time enough to talk of the danger of too much admiring their mere intellectual faculties, when they shall have first learnt to exert and take pleasure in them at all. Instead of thinking, then, that they are not guilty of intellectual pride, or of too highly valuing their own virtues, they should recollect why they are not guilty of these things, and that it is only because they cannot be proud of what they have not got, and that their own faults are of a much lower order; not the pride of having conquered themselves, but gross selfishness; not loving man more than God, but themselves more than man; not trusting too much to their understandings, but altogether neglecting them. For them, therefore, much of the Gospel is as yet a dead letter; they must be far above

VOL. II.

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what they are now, before they can require to be warned against the faults of Christians; they must first learn to acquire the common virtues and excellencies of men. In short, they must be not far from the kingdom of God, before they can hope to enter into it; they must be sensible to the laws of nature and reason, before they can ever understand those of the Gospel.

SERMON XXII.

MARK, vi. 31.

And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.

BEFORE I go on with the subject of the text, it may be right to make one or two remarks, in order to prevent what I said on Sunday last from being misunderstood, and that too, so misunderstood, as to render it mischievous rather than useful. I said, that it was very important that we should all understand clearly the particular class of characters to which we ourselves belong; that so we may each apply to ourselves the particular lesson which is intended for us. And, to apply this to the case before us, I said, that they who had no zeal for any kind of labour were not concerned with exhortations to choose rather that sort of labour which is most useful, and, still less, with warnings not to pursue their labour too eagerly. Such persons, I said, had not got far

enough for lessons of this kind; but required first to learn from our Lord's example of mere diligence in his calling, without regard to the after question of what his particular calling was. But, in thus speaking of classes of characters, I never supposed that these would always go along with particular ages, or particular situations in life. Generally speaking, no doubt, mere idleness is the fault of the very young; and, generally speaking, they would less require the warning against labouring in worldly things only, or against labouring without some intervals of religious rest. Yet it would be very foolish to suppose, either that no young boy had any need to be reminded of these points, or that no older person required to be excited to simple diligence and exertion. There are many cases in which the old require what is properly the instruction of the young, many in which the young require to be warned against the faults of more advanced age,-many also, in which both will stand in need at once of both. It happens that one fault may be partly, not entirely subdued; that we may be grown enough in character to be liable to new temptations, without being out of the reach of our old ones; that, therefore, we may require to guard at once against the evils which beset different points of our progress, even if we need not guard against each in an equal degree. But of all this no man can judge

in his neighbour; it were well if he could always judge truly of it even in himself. In speaking then of the besetting faults of early age, I do not mean, either that all the young require most to be warned against these, or that none but the young are concerned with them; in speaking of the besetting faults of a riper character, there may be young persons who have great need to beware of them, and there may be old persons who have not; and, again, there may be very many, both old and young, to whom it may be highly useful to be cautioned against both.

These things are of consequence everywhere, but particularly so in a congregation like the present, where the differences of age are so strongly marked. Were this not remembered, I might be thought, at one time, to be preaching against one part of my hearers, and, at another time, against another; and the remarks that I make may be supposed to be levelled at particular persons, rather than at particular faults and dangers. And those differences in our situation and relations to one another, which elsewhere are necessarily kept up, may be carried into things, and to places where they should be wholly lost sight of. For when we are here assembled, as more immediately in the presence of God, our relation to God and Christ is brought out into such clear light, and presses, or ought to press, so strongly